As HM and her boys dig out from under at least 24 inches of snow, in what people in the Washington D.C. area are calling "Snowpocalypse 2009", am taking a break to blog about the last half of the Caps' western road trip. First I must mention that this weekend's storm brought an exception to one of John Buccigross's cardinal rules of youth hockey - that hockey games are never cancelled due to weather. Both of my boys' travel games were cancelled and I spent a rare Saturday relaxing on the couch instead of madly dashing to and from various ice rinks - aaaaah.
I needed the welcome rest after staying up way past my bedtime to watch the boys take on the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers on consecutive nights. As we all know, the meeting with the Canucks did not go in our favor and Jeff Schultz was the unlucky guy who inadvertently lit the lamp for the home team when a puck bounced off his skate into the Capitals' goal. HM's favorite twins (besides my own of course), Henrik and Daniel Sedin, were held scoreless but the Canucks won the game 3-2 courtesy of two tallies from Mason Raymond. And it's never a picnic going against elite net minder Roberto Luongo, as the Capitals found out up close and personal.
Last night's game with the Edmonton Oilers started out slow with the guys from the oil patch holding a 2-0 lead going into the dressing room after the second period. The Caps were the recipients of an own goal for the second night in a row and Karl Alzner was the victim of this one. The second Oilers goal was a breakaway tally from Sean Horcoff after an ugly giveaway by Jeff Schultz. But the Capitals regrouped and came out guns blazing in the third period, capturing a convincing 4-2 victory with two goals from Alex Ovechkin, one from Flash and one from Nick Backstrom! Michal Neuvirth rebounded nicely and looked pretty solid in net after his fiasco debut in Toronto last weekend. So the Capitals still sit near the tippy top of the Eastern Conference standings, one point behind the New Jersey Devils. Nice rally last night boys!
On a side note, Sour Grapes Don Cherry was back to his old tricks last night on HNIC when discussing the non-suspension of the Av's David Koci for his brutal hit from behind on Mike Green last week (which earned Koci a fine instead of a suspension; another fine example of the inconsistent discipline doled out by the league). According to Grapes, Green should be more aware of "who's on the ice"! HM is throwing the fail flag in response to that one - I don't care if Ogie Ogilthorpe is on the ice - there was absolutely no place for that hit by Koci and it had nothing to do with Green knowing "who was on the ice." Man that Grapes makes my blood boil...
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2 comments:
On the Don Cherry thing ...
Violence in hockey is unacceptable and to say it is ok up to a certain point does not cut it. That line gets crossed (accidentally) and can cause very serious injury.
It's weird - while dog and bird fighting are cruel and strictly against the law, arenas are packed with 25000 people who came to watch hockey players administer black eyes and teeth removal on the opponent players.
What's Eating Donald "Gilbert" Grapes anyway?
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