Can Caps Make Game 6 an Early Mom's Day Gift and Wrap It Up?

I apologize to my faithful readers for the lack of hockey talk from Hockey Mom this weekend. To be completely honest, after Friday night's flub on home ice, I kind of felt a bit like Gabby and needed to "chill out" before posting pixels. I was at a gathering during Game 5 and a friend who is a total non-hockey watcher remarked, "Geez, the Capitals look like they're on vacation." Um yeah, pretty much. And Coach Boudreau summed up the situation perfectly when he called out some of his key players and noted that not everyone was on the bus for a full 60-minutes during the Game 5 loss. This is playoff hockey boys - this is it. Time to stop making defensive gaffes, find your league-leading power play (apparently working on that this morning) and demonstrate the dominance that earned you the President's Trophy. For a full 60-minutes. And then again in the next game. And the next game. And prove the naysayers like the greasy, schlumpy suit-wearing Barry Melrose wrong. Because I have faith in this team and when all the stars align, they are incredibly hard to stop. Don't be surprised to see Gabby mix it up a bit. Game 6 - wrap it up in Montreal tomorrow boys!

In other weekend hockey happenings:

• By now, you've all heard about the misadventures of Eric Berlanger (DDS) and the totally missed high-sticking call on the incident that resulted in eight lost chiclets. The tough guy pulled one of the teeth on the bench, had his roots snipped and lip stitched up and then returned to the game. Returned to the game folks! No question that hockey players are the toughest guys in sports. Redskin's Albert Haynesworth, watch the video of the high stick on Berlanger and then watch him pull his own tooth and return to action - then feel shame for writhing on the ground everytime someone hits your out of shape frame. The Caps didn't get the call, but at least the Habs' Marc-Andre Bergeron said "sorry."
• Yep, the Pittsburgh Penguins came from behind (again) to win their series against a Kovi-less Ottawa Senators team last night.
• The Phoenix Coyotes forced a Game 7 against the Red Wings in a chippy affair this afternoon. Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader (who has by far one of the grooviest names in hockey) dropped the gloves with no less than two desert dogs in today's 5-2 loss.
• Equal opportunity discipline? We'll see when the NHL reviews Blackhawk Marian Hossa's hit from behind on Nashville's Dan Hamhuis (eerily reminiscent of Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell that earned him a two game suspension). Ovechkin was tossed after his hit on Campbell, while Hossa emerged from the penalty box just in time to score the game winning goal for Chicago. Hmmmm...

So that's it from me for now - will keep my ears to the ground for any interesting pre-game news tomorrow. Hope you all had a happy hockey weekend!