Is the Capstronaut a Gift from Space? Caps Blow Out Leafs

Is the "Capstronaut" the Caps' lucky charm from galaxies far, far away? The wild and wacky hockey nut from outer space made a stop in the owner's box during last night's Caps/Leafs game after a personal invitation from Uncle Ted himself. Whatever the story is with this mysterious moon man, the Caps' home record with rocket boy in attendance is an impressive 5-0! So Hockey Mom hopes he brings the moon mojo for tomorrow's game against the much disliked (not nice to say "hated") Flyers, as they are sure to be feistier than normal after being blown out by the Leafs two days ago.

Coming off the high of a shut out against the Flyers two days ago, the Maple Leafs found the Capitals to be a much, much tougher opponent last evening. As a matter of fact, Vesa Toskala may as well have had his hands tied behind his back when it came to stopping Ovie, Nick Backstrom, Mike Knuble (with those two lovely signature crash-the-net, in your face goals of his), Eric Fehr and Tom Poti from netting six goals against him. The frustration got the best of the Leafs' net minder in the second period as he got called for a delay of game penalty.

Ovie had another brilliant performance with a career-high four assists (for which he got just as excited as if he'd scored them himself - that's why he's our captain and head cheerleader)! He now joins team mates Nick Backstrom and Mike Green on the list the top 14 players in the League in assists, making the Caps the only team with three players on that elite roster!

And a Hockey Mom high five to John Carlson, who can boast that he earned the hard hat to add to his gold-medal bling collection for his outstanding performance after being called up from Hershey at the last minute late yesterday afternoon. Jose Theodore deserves some love too, looking solid and stopping 28 shots with the exception of the one goal scored by Leafs' d-man Tomas Kaberle.

Theo will most likely get the nod tomorrow against the Flyers. Unfortunately, the boys will be missing the toughness of Jason Chimera against thugnasty Philadelphia, as he recieves an automatic one-game suspension for the instigator penalty resulting from fighting during the final five minutes of a game. Gabby will get slapped with a $10,000 fine as well for that one. Ouch and ouch.

So great job boys - keep racking up those points and heading toward the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings. See you tomorrow at the Phone Booth!