Post-Preds Musings

"There are no easy nights in this league"
-Defenseman Brian Pothier

Lucky for the Capitals, last night's game had a good ending. On a cold and rainy evening, Caps faithful packed the house, probably expecting to see a pretty convincing win over a Predators team that's been struggling offensively of late - they've been outscored by opponents 16-2 in their last four outings prior to last night's meeting. And the league's leader in both points (16) and goals (9), Alex Ovechkin, got the party started early with two tallies in the first period alone. Yet after holding a 2-0 lead well into the second period, the boys let the Predators back in the game. Sharpshooter Shea Weber blasted a rocket past Semyon Varlamov after Nick Backstrom failed to stop him from breaking out of the Preds zone (luckily, this is a rare occurence on the part of our fabulous young center). And less than two minutes later, J.P. Dumont struck from a very sharp angle after Jeff Schultz did not clear the puck out of our end. Varly missed the boat on that one and in a game that should have been in the books for the Caps in the third period, we went on to yet another shootout.

Varlamov saved the evening in the shootout by stopping Martin Erat dead in his tracks. And our own Alex Ovechkin kept the fireworks going with a magnificent deke on Preds' net minder Dan Ellis to earn the win. Next up for the Caps, their first Southeast Division meeting with the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday. The Thrashers are off to their best start in team history so this will not be easy going (again, reiterating the words of Brian Pothier) by any means.

But in the meantime, you can relive Ovie's spectacular peformance from last night again here:



Next up for Hockey Mom, my twins face other on opposing ends of the ice for the first time in their hockey "careers" in less than five hours. I will be watching from the safe confines of the pizza place inside the rink, calming my nerves with an adult beverage and hoping that those two don't drop the gloves. Not that that doesn't happen at least once a week in my living room, mind you. HM is hoping that I don't have to dispatch individual taxis to ferry them home afterwards rather than listen to all the smack that's sure to take place on the drive home. Ya, stay tuned - should be a good one...