Cindy Who? Caps Crush Penguins 5 - 2 on NBC

Photo courtesy of Washington Capitals/Getty Images

The recent peace accord between Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin that was "brokered" at the All-Star game may still have wet ink, but it was obvious by today's heated rivalry game that there won't be a similar handshake between the Great 8 and Sidney Crosby anytime soon.

The Capitals more than made up for their mistakes at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche with a thrilling win over the hated Pens in front of a revelling red-rocking crowd. Besides being all over the birds with the fore-check, today's game saw goals by Ovie, Alex Semin, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrison and Sergei Fedorov. Hockey Mom was unable to make today's game as the twins had a game as well - jeez, the things we do for our kids!

But I did watch the nationally-televised contest on NBC and got a huge kick out of listening to Mike Milbury finally jump on the Ovechkin bandwagon and wax poetic about how he's the greatest player in the league. Yes, this is the same clod who made an arse of himself during the SC Playoffs last year by telling Ovie he "played like a dog" during the Caps/Flyers series. And analyst Pierre McGuire has apparently been drinking the "Sidney Crosby is THE face of the NHL" juice by reporting that the Caps were slinging "harsher than normal" words towards the Pen's captain. Waa waa waaah! Wait a minute, HM thinks it was Crosby who tried to dump Ovie into his own bench ( after which Ovie blew him off after some choice words and a smart little wave of the hand).

As expected, this was a heated and physical match and thankfully the Capitals returned to the game we all know and love. Looks like the new bench boss the Penguins GM Ray Shero hired isn't going to give the team a quick fix as they have some serious personnel issues as well. Maybe he should have followed Cap's GM George McPhee's how-to-build-a-team program. Speaking of GMGM, check out this piece by the guys over at DC Pro Sports Report on how the Caps have built the team as we know it and the talent in store for the fans for years to come....works for me!