Credit where credit is due

With the offensive explosion last night, most of the credit is (justifiably) being heaped upon Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. That's all well and good, but Ovechkin's magical first period performance was made possible by a much less glamorous player: Donald Brashear. Though his first period efforts only produced PIMs on the scoresheet, Brashear's tussle with Zdeno Chara set the stage for the Caps offensive eruption.

Why, you ask? It's simple. For years now Zdeno Chara has been one of the few players in the NHL capable of shutting down Alex Ovechkin. And when Chara dropped the gloves with the Donald, it guaranteed that he would be off the ice for five full minutes (as would Brashear). That's a tradeoff Coach Boudreau would take every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

When Chara heard the penalty box doors slam shut, the score was 2-0. By the time it opened again, the score was 4-0 and the Caps were off and running. Indeed, Big Zeke was so frustrated that he promptly took a minor penalty trying to goad Matt Bradley into fistacuffs moments later. Way to pick on someone your own size, big man. Bradley did the smart thing (in more ways than one) by keeping his gloves on and his nose clean, and the Caps promptly scored again on the ensuing power play. None of this would have occurred without Brashear's fearlessness and, just as importantly, the intelligence to see that Chara was agitated and would drop the gloves if goaded.

Naturally, Brash's smart play was rewarded with more ice time (the fact that the Caps were up by a handful of goals probably didn't hurt, either) and a goal late in the second. A job well done by a man whose hockey intelligence is often underrated.

Game highlights (sans fistacuffs) can be found below for your viewing pleasure:

We, like Stephen Colbert, hate bears

The Caps roared out of the gate last night, pouncing on the Bruins and outshooting them to the tune of 10 to 2. Unfortunately, they couldn't slip and of their early shots past Tim Thomas, and ended the frame tied at zero. Not a good sign. The one thing this young team needed was to be rewarded for its hard work.

Instead the Bruins, who were still sitting on a tie game despite being thoroughly outplayed in the first, came out firing in the second and took the lead. Some schlub named Bochenski corralled a Bruins faceoff win in the offensive zone and rifled the puck past Kolzig to put the B's ahead.

After the Bochenski goal, the momentum of the game continued to ebb and flow between teams until Semin caught Phil "It's still to soon to make jokes about you-know-what" Kessel high with his stick, cutting Kessel in the lip and sending Semin to the box for 4 minutes. During the ensuing penalty kill, the Caps bent but didn't break, with Kolzig making a couple strong saves and the post making one for him on Kessel's shot in tight. Alex Ovechkin made a strong sliding block on a shot from Zdeno Chara, giving every fan in the greater Washington area a heart attack as he laid prone on the ice for ten seconds or so before popping up and skating to the bench. He was not injured because, as everyone knows, the Russian Machine doesn't break. While the Bruins seemed to be taking control of the action, the Capitals stood strong, weathered the storm, and continued applying forechecking pressure in the Bruins end.

Immediately in the third, that pressure payed dividends as a strong Caps forecheck forced a turnover inside the blueline, with the puck landing on the stick of Brooks Laich. Usually, this is where folks would start muttering "why couldn't it fall to Ovechkin or Semin right there? Why did it have to fall onto the stick of Brooks frickin Laich!" Well, Laich pulled out his best Semin impression, absolutely ripping a shot high to the glove side past Thomas, knotting the game at one.

After the Laich goal, the teams continued their back and forth play until the Bruins' Andrew Alberts threw a vicious knee to the groin/elbow to the head combo on Zednik, and was punished for his actions by a two minute sitdown. Although the Capitals ONCE AGAIN failed to connect on the power play, Eric "I told you I just scored big goals" Fehr put home the rebound of a Zednik slapper immediately after the penalty expired to put the Caps up 2-1.

The prospect of a two point night was, however, short-lived. With Ovechkin in the box for errantly flipping the puck out of the rink in his own end, the Bruins took advantage. Marc Savard fed Patrice Bergeron, who slammed a one timer past Kolzig to tie the game at two.

Neither team was able to generate much offense for the rest of the third or overtime frames, which led to a shootout tiebreaker. Sasha Semin scored on a move that was for all intensive purposes the exact same one he pulled against the Isles a couple days before. Unfortunately, neither Ovechkin or Fehr were able to follow up, and the Caps fell in the shootout 2-1, with Phil "It's STILL too early" Kessel burying his attempt to seal the loss for the Caps.

Observations from the game:

It's official. Chara is inside Ovie's head. Ovechkin couldn't get anything going offensively, and seemed frustrated throughout the game. Switching up the line combinations did little to help him.

The Laich-Zednik-Fehr line looked dangerous all night, and scored both Caps goals. Didn't see that coming AT ALL.

Tim Thomas looked shaky at best, even though the score doesn't indicate it. He was often out of position and moved too much, never looking settled in the crease. Not exactly a goaltender that inspires confidence.

Unfortunatlely, the Caps are in such a deep hole that one point games like these are worth about the same as regulation losses. Yet another team leapfrogs the Caps in the standings, where they now sit 13th in the conference. Not good.

All in all, not a great game, and not a great result. Next game is Thursday night against the LA Queens. Game time is 7:00 at the V. The snow will all be plowed by then, so getting to the arena for the game should be a cinch.

Two for Tuesday is NOT just a rock radio format

Tonight, the Capitals take on the Bruins at the V, and once again, big daddy Ted is offering up 2 for 1 tickets for interested fans. Wait, you're a fan, and you look interested. Go get yourself some cheap tickets! And watch the left side of the ice when the Caps have the puck. I get the feeling we're in for something special tonight.

Why, you ask? Because the Russian Machine has no points in his last two games, and I don't think he's real pleased about it.

The only thing preventing an eruption tonight? Zdeno Chara. And while Chara definitely can't shop for suits off the rack at 6'9", there's no way he can stop Ovie now that he's 80 feet tall.

Also, we find out what flaws the B's saw in Juju Jurcina's game that made him trade bait. Should be interesting. If anyone knows how to best attack his side of the ice, it's going to be the Bruins. This will give us a better chance to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses more clearly.

Game time is 7 o'clock at the V. And please, no excuses about it being too cold outside to travel to the rink. It's hockey, for god's sake. The game is played ON ICE.


The subject of today's Black History Month spotlight is the late, great Ralph Wiley. Wiley was a sports journalist for Sports Illustrated, the Oakland Tribune, ESPN.com, as well as having works published in National Geographic, GQ and other magazines. If you have never read Wiley's work, I highly recommend both Serenity: a Boxing Memoir and Classic Wiley: A Lifetime of Punchers, Players, Punks & Prophets. His was a voice both prescient and learned, and he was one of the few authors whose writing evoked an emotional, visceral response.

Wiley died tragically of a heart attack in June of 2004. He is, and always will be, greatly missed.

Time to take advantage of the situation

Although the Capitals are still banged up on the backline, there are still plenty of good reasons to be hopeful for the full 2 points on the road tonight. First off, Ottawa no longer has Zdeno Chara (not really news, but I bet AO is still happy about it). Second, this is Ottawa's third game in four nights. They don't exactly have the most youthful team up in the, um, other nation's capital, so there's reason to expect some heavy legs from the Sens players tonight. Third, the Caps are 2-1 in the season series against the Sens. On the other hand, the Senators have won 12 of their last 15 games. Gulp.

To me, this game hinges on whether the Caps backline can put together another strong showing like they did in the second game against Carolina. Mike Green also needs to bounce back from his weak performance in that game to manage the breakout and create offense in the Ottawa zone, as the team will once again be without Brian Pothier.

One bright spot on the injury front - it's the Return of the Zedhead! I expect a lot from Zednik in the next few weeks (once he shakes off the rust), and it will be VERY interesting to see if Hanlon is willing to clear room for him on the second line. I would be rather surprised if he didn't see a good number of minutes across from Sasha Semin as the team evaluates both the value of re-signing him and his value on the open market. It'll be interesting to see where Eric Fehr fits into the lineup with Zed back and healthy.

Game time is 7:30 in the REALLY, REALLY COLD NORTH.