Two wins out of three games this week doesn't really tell the story as Keith Aucoin scored in my opinion the most dramatic goal of the season in a 5-4 overtime win over the Philadelphia Phantoms Saturday night. Congratulations to Kris Mayotte, who earned his first AHL win Saturday.
The Bears are done for the week, but Washington has a big game Sunday with the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of 18,000 crazies at Verizon Center at 12:30. If you're not going, watch the game on NBC with the voice of hockey, Mike Emrick. Doc called me earlier today for some background on a few guys who played in Hershey, I'm pretty sure you're going to hear a lot of the Chocolate and White on the broadcast Sunday.
In the meantime, here's the latest from the "Rock"....have a good rest of the weekend.
CAPS BURIED BY AVALANCHE
WILL TRY TO DIG OUT VERSUS PENS TOMORROW
by: Randy "Rock" Johnson
JohnWaltonHockey.com
It was a disappointing performance for the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center last night as they fell to the Colorado Avalanche 4-1.
Ryan Smith led the way for the Avs with a goal and two assists, and goalie Andrew Raycroft was stellar in allowing but one goal on twenty-nine Caps’ shots.
Nicklas Backstrom potted the loan goal for DC, and Jose Theodore stopped twenty-one of the twenty-five Colorado shots he faced.
While it’s hard to get on a team that has only six losses in twenty-eight home games, last night’s loss did continue a mildly disturbing Caps’ trend at VC. Of the six losses, four have come to teams- Columbus, Edmonton, Los Angeles, and Colorado- that fall into the “games that the Caps should have won” category. Granted, no team is going to go 41-0-0 and the road, and every team has a bad night or two. But great teams never take anyone lightly. It’s interesting to note that those four teams are all in the Western Conference, and because it can be difficult to work up a lather against a team you rarely see, the Caps may have had trouble getting up for those games. That’s not an excuse for losing those games, however, and my guess is that Caps’ coach Bruce Boudreau would hammer his team if they fell into that mindset.
Due to my continuing recovery from the Flu of the Century that I have battled for the last two weeks, I watched last night’s game on Comcast HD from the cozy confines of my living room couch. From what I could see on TV, it didn’t seem like the Caps had much jump in the first two periods. They ratcheted up the intensity a bit in the third period, but they were unable to overcome sloppy play, committing sixteen giveaways to the Avs’ nine.
Now the Caps turn their attention to tomorrow afternoon’s nationally televised clash with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are coming off Saturday afternoon’s huge 5-4 win over the Flyers at Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Sidney Crosby had a big afternoon (2G, 2A), Ruslan Fedotenko chipped in with two goals and an assist, and Pascal Dupuis had three assists. If Flyer fans want to know why their team will come up short in the playoffs, they need to look no further than the ghastly turnover goalie Martin Biron committed that led to Crosby’s game-winning goal with 2:45 remaining in the third period.
Biron came charging out of his crease toward the faceoff circle to his right as Pascal Dupuis was closing in with the puck. Biron managed to grab the puck with his glove, but didn’t properly secure it; instead, he tried an ill-fated behind-the-back pass to a teammate that was intercepted by Dupuis, whose pass was tipped into the empty net by Crosby.
Since they fired head coach Michel Therrien and inserted Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Dan Bylsma in his place, the Pens have gone 2-0-1, and today’s victory brought them to within two points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They are a desperate hockey club, and will roll into Verizon Center tomorrow looking for a much-needed victory. If the Caps aren’t careful, the Pens may get their wish.
INJURIES---Brian Pothier (concussion) indefinite; Chris Clark (wrist) indefinite; Brent Johnson (hip) 6-8 weeks; Viktor Kozlov (groin) day-to-day.
WHAT’S ON ‘CAP’---Tomorrow, VS Pittsburgh; Tuesday, VS Philadelphia; Thursday, VS Atlanta.
Until next time… |
