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Alexander Ovechkin has raised the NHL's record for goals by a left wing from sixty-three to sixty-five. Incidentally, Ovechkin's sixty-fifth goal of this season was a crucial game-winner--and his second key goal of the night--in the game that put the Capitals in playoff position for the first time in months.
Although the Caps opened the season tied with Ottawa for first place in the league, the team quickly fell off due to an ineffective combination of offensive personnel and a defensive coach. By Thanksgiving, they were the last place team in the East, and at New Years they were still in fourteenth place. After last night, the Caps moved into possession of eighth place, passing the star-laden Flyers.
The Flyers, whom we predicted would struggle down the stretch, still have two difficult games left in New Jersey and Pittsburgh. The Capitals, meanwhile, will host the Florida Panthers tomorrow night. If Washington can beat Florida, the Flyers would have to win both of their remaining games to pass Washington.
Of course, if Washington beats Florida, they also have a chance to stay in the playoffs ahead of Carolina, Boston or even Ottawa. The Senators' last game is against Boston, and a regulation win for either team will give the Caps a chance to squeak into the postseason.
This isn't just about whether or not the Caps get to play a couple games in the playoffs, though. In their last ten games, Washington is 9-1, making them the hottest team in the East. Christobal Huet has won his last eight starts, making him the hottest goalie the Caps have had since the eighties. We remind you that in 1998 the Caps made it to the Stanley Cup Finals on the strength of a great goalie named Olaf Kolzig. Kolzig is still in town as one of the league's best backups. This is a team built to go deep.
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The end of that game was nuts! I heard the Gordon goal in the car and by the time I walked inside from my car the Caps had scored again.
Best part of the game last night was watching the team turn it around in the 3rd. Watching the second was nerve-wracking.
Agreed, third period was a Phone Booth love fest. Most enjoyable game I've been to this year, although there have been some great ones...
it may as well BE the playoffs now. they're playing like a team that wants it.
"In their last ten games, Washington is 9-1, making them the hottest team in the East."
True, but they weren't really playing great teams in those games.. if Carolina wasn't 3rd seed due to leading the division, all of their opponents in the last 10 games are 6th or lower. If the Caps do squeak in, they're likely to play the Pens or Les Habs. The Caps have only been able to beat those teams in overtime during the regular season. Remember, playoff overtimes are 5-5.
The Caps have been in the playoffs since January. The question is if they make it to the next round.
That last goal by Ovechkin was outstanding a pure laser to the back of the net. I agree with DC Guy that the Caps have been in the playoff since January. It's just a shame that unless they make it into the actual playoffs, AO will probably not get the MVP.
I think it's kind of amusing that this post about last night's Caps game doesn't manage to mention either their opponent or the score. I know sportswriters are always eager to show off their deep knowledge of the subject by getting to the analysis as quickly as possible, and all, but this is taking it a bit far.
if the stars align properly and the caps play the pens, home advantage for games 3/4 will be out the window. silly dc, hockeys for yinzers and hosers.
I agree that the Caps have been in the playoffs since January, though not all of their opponents have been playing with the same passion/enthusiasm. As my beloved Pens found out last year in their first round playoff dismembering at the hands of the Senators, playoff hockey is hockey at an entirely different level. I think this year's playoffs will be good experience for the Caps, but I wouldn't dream of them winning their first series.
Nate, if you're reading this post, which over the year keeps gaining more posters, you would already know the score, the opponent and what it would take for the Caps to advance to the playoffs. This is a secretive macro-blog solely for real hockey/Caps fans. If you don't know, you're already way behind.
Eli, keep up the good work homie.
GO CAPS! Anyone know where I might be able to catch the game on Saturday in Philly? I know it might be a stretch, but I figure SOME bar has to show it.
Thank you so much, Sordid. It's a real honor.
Of course, Nate, I'd be happy to recap the game for you and anybody else who is still wondering what happened. Just off the top of my head:
The Capitals beat Tampa Bay last night, by a score of 4-1. Announced attendance was fairly close to actual attendance. The Capitals fell behind in the game's first forty seconds on a goal by a lightning defenseman.
Brooks Laich tied the score on a goal that was apparently waived off because an official wanted to keep things interesting. The refs declared that the goaltender had been interfered with, but the only person who touched him was one of his own defensemen, who was in the middle of successfully blocking a shot, from which Laich drove the rebound home cleanly. The shot-blocker had previously bumped shoulders with Washington's Tomas Fleischmann, but he was moving under his own control.
Vincent Lecavalier's season ended early after he bumped into Matt Bradley, crashed into his own teammate and fell on his left arm.
Even before Lightning coach John Tortorella stopped shouting at the referee, Ovechkin tied Peter Bondra for the Caps' single-season power-play goal record at twenty-two.
Bethesda's own Jeff Halpern kept the pressure up, but ultimately the Caps prevailed on a rare superstar move from Boyd Gordon, whom they retained as Halpern's younger, cheaper replacement.
We ridiculed Gordon in last year's "Caps Briefing: Gordon Gets a Goal," because last year he centered a line that former coach Glen Hanlon said would contribute plenty of offense, and instead he took about half the season to get his second goal.
We weren't laughing last night when Gordon fought hard for the puck in the corner, collected a rebound behind the cage off a Matt Bradley shot and then deked oustanding young Finnish netminder Kari Ramo to the ice.
Gordon held onto the puck long after even the most experienced goalscorer would have shot it, skating from post to post, all the way across the crease and firing the puck backwards over Ramo's outstretched right pinky toe to seal the victory. It was by far the prettiest goal of the evening, and Gordo had some stiff competition.
Not only did Ovechkin score twice, but Tom Poti--the second highest priced free agent defenseman in team history--scored his second goal of the season on an empty net, erasing all doubt about the outcome. Poti, of course, has been anything but a bust this year. While he was brought in primarily to help the power play, and hasn't been able to equal the meteoric rise of Mike Green in that department, he's adapted his game and contributed more consistently on defense than he's been known to at any previous point in his career.
Before scoring the empty-netter from his own zone, Poti played nearly the entire four-minute penalty kill after John Erskine bestowed an honorific bloody nose upon Tampa Bay's lone goal-scorer.
In the game's waning minutes, Tortorella begged the league to fine him, by putting too many men on the ice in order to get one of his players to start--and lose--a fight with Matt Bradley.
Now, of course, that's not a complete write up, but we have to pick and choose what we focus on. Would anybody like to fill us in on Jeff Schultz' performance, filling in on the top defensive pair for the injured Shaone Morrisonn, or on Steve Eminger's solid showing in Schultz's spot on the third pair? That's a story on it's own. Watch for Eminger to try to make an impression tomorrow night as the Caps fight for their playoff lives against the Florida Panthers.
Eli, For a couple months I tried to write the Caps Briefing for this here website. It was a sad, sad attempt.
You're updates have been a thousand times better and seriously, much funnier. Unfortunately, I never matured beyond the dick joke.
Y'all can mock me for not being in your little club all you want, but I still think that starting off this post with "In last night's 4-1 victory over Tampa Bay" would have been nice for those of us who hadn't heard the info elsewhere already. It may only be the "true fans" who comment on these posts, but that doesn't mean they're the only ones who read them.
You're too kind, Heckle. Not only have I been impressed with your writing, but I've heard only good things about it from the staff here and in comments I've received. And if I ever venture beyond dick jokes myself, I credit our sports editor, Matt Bourque, for eventually telling me to cut it out. Your skates are big and I'm wearing thick socks here.
Nate, please don't imagine any disrespect, and I'm sorry for joshing. We're delighted to have you here as a casual fan, and I do appreciate your criticism. I understand that you're giving your time freely to make DCist better, just as I am, with the only difference being that you don't give up sleep on worknights to meet deadlines. Please accept that I thought of this as a two-threaded story about Ovechkin's record and the Caps' postseason chase, rather than a game writeup--which would have indeed required a score in the first paragraph by longstanding journalistic convention.
I also made sure that for anybody who wanted to know more information, it was available. I put a link to a complete writeup of the game in a website that carried a full wire story about it, as I usually do. In this case it's an NBC.com-hosted AP story with the score in the headline. Just follow my links and you're sure to find all the scores and details that I think are important but outside the scope of what I'm trying to say.
If you're ever wondering what the score of a Caps game is on a day that I don't have a story in DCist, I recommend checking out washingtoncaps.com, espn.com, nhl.com, yahoo.com, the Washington Post (if you're republican) the Washington Times (if you're illiterate) or just running a news search with the terms Washington Capitals.
You can also check out any of dozens of excellent blogs dedicated entirely to the Capitals. I have linked to stories in Japers' Rink, On Frozen Blog and Ted Leonsis' and Tariq El-Bashir's blogs, to name a few.
I feel that those sources have the scores covered, so when I get the opportunity to write three to five short paragraphs here, I try to make sure I tell an interesting and exciting story that, even if it's the only story you've ever read about the Caps, will explain the issues that longtime fans are talking about on a high enough level that you can contribute to a conversation about the team.
Because hockey has eighty-two games in its regular season, it's not like soccer or football where the first thing the fans want to talk about is the score. It's more like baseball, where fans take a longer view of the season, and individual games become second-hand ticks that don't really help you if you want to know what time it is. The news right now is the playoff race, which, incidentally, is boiling over tonight.
Florida beat Carolina last night, keeping Carolina tied with Washington for first place in the Southeast Division. The Caps need to keep the score at least tied through regulation against Florida tonight to take the lead. If the Caps lose tonight, Carolina will go to the playoffs. If they can make it to overtime, they'll claim the third playoff spot in the East.