Despite playing one of the most dreadful periods (it was the 2nd) that I've seen of professional hockey, the Penguins picked up 2 points on the hapless Washington Capitals.
Thoughts:
``The loss of Mark Eaton showed early and often. Sergei Gonchar looked brutal and downright uncomfortable out there in his own zone.
``Brooks Orpik came back from his 3 game healthy scratch exile with a vengence, credited with 5 hits and 5 blocked shots and played the style that has to be pleasing to the coach.
``Caps fans, by now, are used to the heartbreak of crushing defeats at the hands of Pittsburgh....But if that ridiculous Crosby-to-Malkin one timer hits the net (instead of the post) with less than 5 seconds in regulation even I would almost feel sorry for them.....Almost.
``Much of the team looked disjointed but the Roberts-Christensen-Laraque line was not good. Guess it was lightning in a bottle.
``Speaking of Crusher, what a faceoff win late in the game to set up Sydor's tying goal. That's as clutch as any shootout goal he'll score.
``The Caps got the short end of the stick twice in penalties: Ovechkin's cross-check wasn't even close to being a cross-check and Shaone Morrrrrisssssonnnn's roughing wasn't that rough. (The lesson, as usual kids is don't spell your name like a jackass).
``Anyone seen or heard from Petr Sykora?
``Glad to hear Mr. Nemesis is ok and just has a superficial cut after taking an accidental Kris Letang skate to the leg.
More about Ovechkin, let's look at him and Crosby head to head....If you're keeping track (and I am!) Sid is still "Gretzky'ing" AO. That of course is a term I think I created meaning you've got more assists than the other guy has points.
Sidney Crosby: 5 goals, 12 assists, 17 points
Alex Ovechkin: 5 goals, 4 assists, 9 points
And more importantly:
Penguins: 9-1
Capitals: 1-7-2 (1 shootout and 1 OT loss)
Capitals: 1-7-2 (1 shootout and 1 OT loss)
Nice to get two more points, but it'd be hard to drop a home-game to the last place team in the Conference who played the previous night. Either way, drop two more in the points column and time to move on.
Up next, a home-and-home with the Buffalo Sabres. Somehow I get the feeling one of these games will have more hype and excitement behind it than the other...
1 comment:
Sigh. Gut-wrenching defeat. And good on you for noticing the *ahem* questionable calls on AO and Mo - the former should have been accompanied by a diving minor to Staal and while the latter may have been a rough on some nights, it certainly wasn't in the context of the first 55 minutes of the game.
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