Raise your hand if you saw THAT coming

Now allow me to call all of you with your hands raised liars. What an impressive 4-1 victory over the artists formerly known as the hottest team in the league. The Caps put together one of their better overall games of the year and, thanks to the brilliant goaltending of Olie Kolzig, dominated the Senators for all three periods. The Senators faithful sounded much more like a crowd of 8,000 than a packed house of over 18,000.

It looked to be all doom and gloom for the Caps in the second with the score knotted at 0 when Jeff Shultz and Tom Poti were whistled for minor infractions within a minute of one another. On the ensuing penalty kill, Dave Steckel broke his stick, and Caps fans everywhere waited for the hammer to fall... and waited... and waited... and nothing happened. Olie Kolzig played like a man possessed, the defense held, and the Caps were able to get a stoppage of play. Glen Hanlon wisely spent a timeout to rest his weary penalty killers, who responded by snuffing out the rest of the Ottawa penalty. If the Caps are able to reel off a few wins and get themselves out of the cellar, that penalty kill will be pointed to as the turning point in this young season.

A little more than halfway through the second, someone finally let Viktor Kozlov know the season had started, and he responded with an impressive effort, scoring once on a great individual effort and setting up two more Caps tallies on his way to being named the number one star of the night. Also notable was Nicklas Backstrom potting is first NHL goal, and the Russian Machine sealing the victory with a pretty delayed snapper late in the third.

The Caps need to carry all the momentum they can muster into Saturday's tilt against Tampa, where the Caps look to break out from the bottom of the standings and start the rise to the middle of the pack. Tampa has yet to win on the road, and the Caps will have had a couple days to soak in the glory of this victory and rest up for the game. All signs point towards a hard fought Caps victory, as long as someone can keep Kozlov awake during the game.

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.

The long road home continues

The Caps yet again couldn't get it done, and lost on the road to the Sens. Quite a few areas of concern in the game, so lets start from the top.

First, the Caps blew a chance to grab an early lead when Ben Clymer shanked an easy tip in just three minutes into the game. Dainus Zubrus also blew an easy tip in chance later in the game that would have tightened the game to 4-3. The inability of any forwards other than the Alexes and Captain Clark to capitalize on even the best scoring chances is absolutely killing the team right now.

Maybe our guys are gripping the sticks too tightly, knowing that this is probably more than just a chance to make the playoffs. It's also a chance for them to secure their spots on the roster. With a glut of talent up front in Hershey and Backstrom coming over from Sweden, not withstanding any offseason free agent signings, spots will be much harder to come by next year. Are our boys feeling the squeeze? It appears so.

Our already depleted defensive corps took another shot (to the ankle, no less!) when Mike Green took a rocket slapper flush to the ankle. Here's to hoping it's no more than a bad bruise.

The Caps are clearly missing the backline presence of John Erskine right now. Teams simply do not show any respect for the Capitals physical play on in the defensive end. Opposing forwards make moves directly at the defense, which would not happen if they got their jaw rattled every once in a while.

The Caps road losing streak is now at 6, and won't improve unless they can find a way to jump-start what has been an absolutely atrocious power play unit. 0 for 5 with the man advantage simply won't get it done in the NHL these days.

Brad Johnson also had a less than stellar game in net. At least two of the goals scored were less than spectacular, with Johnson moving too far out of position laterally on one and getting beaten by a slow wrister on another. This is not to say that Johnson is not a good backup, or that I object to his recent contract extension. Neither is the case. It's the simple fact that, as a backup, he is going to have the occasional game where he flubs a couple shots. It's the reason he's not a starter right now. I happen to think he does an admirable job in his role, but that role is to spell Kolzig when necessary and try to steal a game now and again, not to consistently perform at Kolzig's level. And last night he had an off night. I still think his contract extension was a good idea, and that he's ideal an ideal fit as a long term second goaltender as the team brings along Semen Varlamov or whoever ends up as Kolzig's replacement.

Next game is tomorrow at Carolina in a game the team absolutely needs to win in order to stay competitive in the Southeast division.

Late Update: X-rays negative on Green, but he's out indefinitely. Not good. Not at all.

This just might work...

News from Tarik that the Caps will play Big Donnie Brashear on the second line tonight against Ottawa, alongside Semin and Beech. It's an interesting move, and if it doesn't click immediately will probably be short lived, but I think it's a great shakeup. Brashear doesn't have great speed, but most power forwards don't. He is an underrated passer, and an absolute terror forechecking in the offensive end. And as for his physical play, well, you already know all about that. He will certainly cause some offensive zone turnovers (or at minimum some VERY jittery defensemen), which should see Semin and Don't Call Me Dead Meat Beech get some more bang-bang play opportunities.

This reminds me of another Caps big man getting an opportunity for more minutes when he was traded here from Colorado. His name: Chris Simon. And while Simon had more in the way of footspeed and offensive skill, he was nowhere near the physical presence that Big Donnie is. Simon had his most productive years playing the power forward role in DC (until a shoulder injury severely downgraded his physical play and hence his overall effectiveness).

So here's to hoping that Big Donnie does well in his role, and gets lots more ice time to go with it. At this stage in his career, there's no way you can say he hasn't earned it.

Brashear's beatdown of the Ottawa Fat Cat Legislators starts at 7:30 tonight.