Ya Want Mustard Wit Dat? Caps Versus N.Y. Islanders

The New York Islanders are in town to take on the Capitals and that can only mean one thing - Dollar Dog Night! To commemorate Dollar Dog night, there was a hot-dog eating contest at Verizon Center, where several media representatives including pucksandbooks from On Frozen Blog took part in the festivities. Hope they all remembered to pack the Pepto Bismol!

As you all probably know, the team is still without several key players including Green, Semin, Fedorov, Poti, Clark, Erskine and Schultz. The Islanders are still missing their all-star goalie Rick DiPietro who is recovering from knee and hip injuries. Their backup net minder Joey MacDonald has filled in for the Isles quite nicely, earning one of the NHL's Stars of the Month for November (along with Ovie of course). The Islanders are also missing cute little Hilary Duff's boyfriend Mike Comrie.

Speaking of Ovechkin, he opened the scoring in the first period. Less than 2 minutes later, Kozlov (or was it Fleischmann?) lit the red light to make it 2-0. There were some scary moments when it looked the the Great 8 might have joined the list of the walking wounded, but thankfully (exhale) he returned to action with a vengeance. The Caps had some serious penalty minutes tonight with a slew of hooking infractions and a boarding call on Ovie late in the second. The Islander's Mark Streit netted one against Brent Johnson to make it 2-1. Then in a wacky series of events, the Isle's Chris Campoli shot from the blue line and thought he'd tied it up. But alas, the puck went off one of the linesman's legs and they called no-goal. Hey, there's only so much help you can get from the zebras and scoring is definitely not included.

A big HM high five to Keith Aucoin who was just called up from chocolate land and had a magnificent first two periods (including a sweet breakaway). New York's Trent Hunter went on to score in the second to make it a tie contest at 2-2.

Meanwhile, the Sean Avery saga continues and the NHL hasn't decided how long they are going to suspend that heathen. It sounds like his team mates on the Dallas Stars are thoroughly disgusted with both his on and off-ice antics, despite his written and issued by a publicist bogus apology. Note to self Sean, if you really want to issue a heartfelt apology -- try doing it in person next time. I have a feeling that despite whatever punishment is handed down by the League, Avery won't be on the Star's roster much longer. My question is - why would they give him such a large contract to begin with? His history of "crossing the line" is no secret to anyone who follows hockey! For crying out loud, they had to create the "Avery" rule last season in response to his unconventional and obnoxious agitation tactics against goalie Martin Brodeur.

With 13:10 left in the third, the "Donald" Brashear clipped one in with an assist from rookie Karl Alzner to reclaim the lead - way to keep at it! Later in the period, Eric Fehr scored on a power play with a hand from Brooks Laich to pad the Caps' lead 4 - 2. An Ovechkin to Backstrom pass resulted in an empty net goal to seal the deal 5 - 2. Aggravated by the lack of energy from the guys in the loss against Florida, Gabby apparently gave the team a very animated talking-to. Not sure what he said (nor that it could be repeated on this G-rated platform), but whatever it was he obviously got through to them.

Another fabulous home victory for the men in red and Brent Johnson's first against Islanders!