Off Wing Opinion

Just a reminder that I will be at Verizon Center tonight for the game between the Caps and the Thrashers. I'll be going it alone, however, as everyone else is going to be out of town -- that means no pics tonight.

However, you can reach me via AIM where my handle is Emacwriter. See you tonight!

UPDATE: Greetings fromm Verizon Center, where Liz Chang, DC Sports Chick, is sitting to my left. Good to see another blogger sneak in under the wire...

Photo by Eric McErlain

Pregame:

Japers' Rink
Caps Nut
Southeast Shootout
Mike Vogel
On Frozen Blog
Peerless Prognosticator
Sin Bin
DC Caps Chick (Psst. Liz is considering legal action regarding her copyright, but I wasn't the one who told you.)

Get ready for pick-up hockey at the practice rink in Arlington.

STARTING LINEUPS: ATLANTA: G: Hedberg; D: Vishnevski, DeVries; W: Hossa, Kozlov; C: Holik. CAPS: G: Kolzig; D: Pothier, Morrisonn; W: Bradley, Clymer; C: Sutherby.

SCRATCHES: ATLANTA: McCarthy, Havelid and Boulton. CAPS: Beech and Muir. Folks are getting healthy and Beech and Muir are back in street clothes again. That can't feel good.

Puck drops in less than 10 minutes.

END OF FIRST PERIOD: CAPS 1 ATLANTA 0: To tell the truth is was a pretty bland period, but one where we saw Glen Hanlon's confidence in Jakub Klepis pay off in a big way. With Ilya Kovalchuk off the ice for hooking, Klepis took a pass from Brian Pothier inside the faceoff circle before backhanding the puck to Matt Pettinger who beat Johan Hedberg for his fifth goal of the season.

I think the Caps have found their second line center. The other forward on the power play unit was Captain Chris Clark.

For a moment when it looked like Donald Brashear and J.P. Vigier jawed at each other for a few moments before deciding not to go at one another. You'll remember that Vigier got roughed up the last time he was in town. Boyd Gordon continues to play well on the forecheck. With Jamie Heward off for holding, Gordon forced Hedberg to freeze the puck and force a defensive zone faceoff. The kid works real hard.

For the period, Atlanta outshot the Caps 10-7, mostly owed to spending better than four minutes of the period on the power play. Atlanta also led in faceoff wins, 13-8.

END OF SECOND PERIOD: ATLANTA 3 CAPS 2: How many times have we seen the Caps let up on a team that they've had down and out? Too many times if you asked me, and that's exactly what happened in the second period tonight, as the home team is now down a goal headed into the third period.

The Caps stretched the lead to 2-0 thanks to some hard work by Gordon, a man who is going to get more popular around town now that he's establishing a reputation as a smart and tireless player. At 5:03, Gordon picked up a puck behind the Atlanta net that Hedberg had misplayed and threw it out in front of the net where Klepis was waiting to roof it over Hedburg.

But then the wheels started to come off the bus. A little more than a minute later, a Glen Metropolit slapper took a weird bounce to Shane Hnidy inside the right wing faceoff circle. He blasted a shot that evaded Kolzig to cut the lead to 2-1.

A little less than six minutes later with John Erskine in the box the Thrashers struck again. Bobby Holik won a faceoff back to Kovalchuk who backed the puck up to the point and let go of a wrist shot. Holik got his stick on it and deflected it past Kolzig to tie the game, 2-2.

It wasn't much later that ex-Cap Glen Metropolit took a pass from Greg Devries on the left wing and skated in on Kolzig. The Caps goalie stoped a Metropolit slapper, but gave up a rebound that popped high into the air, which is where Metropolit decided to play some lacrosse and bat the puck out of the air and past Kolzig for a 3-2 lead.

Reader Chris Brown passed along the word that Al Koken is reporting that the glass behind Kolzig is brand new, which is the reason the puck took such a wicked bounce. Thanks to Chris for the 411.

After two periods, Atlanta is outshooting the Caps 22-15, and is winning the faceoff battle 28-17. This Atlanta team is dangerous and you simply can't let them get this many chances.

FINAL: ATLANTA 4 CAPS 2: The Caps were able to generate some good offensive chances in the third period, but it wasn't enough as a late mistake off the stick of Klepis allowed Atlanta to salt away the win with a goal by Kovalchuk.

With just inside of six minutes remaining, Klepis dug a Shaone Morrisonn clearing pass from the boards and was looking to complete the breakout. Unfortunately, while Klepis might have been looking for his right wing, he instead found Kovalchuk just inside the Caps blue line. He skated in alone on Kolzig and wristed it past him for a 4-2 lead.

That's four games against Atlanta this year, all losses, though the Caps did salvage a point in the first two games.

Inside of two minutes, Andy Sutton and Ben Clymer dropped the gloves, and it was all because Sutton whiffed on a check he tried to deliver on Mike Green. As the scrum continued, it looked like Clark, busted mouth and all, was looking for a piece of Kovalchuk.

There were some penalties handed out, and the teams were forced to skate 3-on-3, which gave Hanlon an opportunity to put Erskine, Brashear and Bradley on the ice together -- and when the puck dropped, everybody dropped the gloves as they paired off with Vishnevski, Hossa and DeVries. The fans were loving it, and so did the guy playing the music in the arena, as he continued to crank "Welcome to the Jungle" over the arena's PA system.

Liz tells me that Vishnevski has blood all over the back of his jersey, all courtesy of Brashear. And a lot of that blood is splattered in front of the Atlanta bench.

The puck drops and now it's Brian Sutherby with Brad Larsen. The crowd is on their feet going nuts.

They're only getting done with the first set of penalties now. We're diving into Twisted Sister now.

Down to 3-on3 again. Now it's Heward and Mellanby! And Heward wrestles the Atlanta captain to the ice.

I'm sensing a real bonding moment here for the Caps! Liz and I are laughing it up but good here. They've officially run out of room on the scoreboard to list any more penalties!

What a night!

Notes: Somebody proposed on the big screen tonight -- never a good idea.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:10 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Thrashers are in town to take on the Caps, and I'll be in my usual seat in the press box recording my observations. We'll have one little twist tonight -- I'll be accompanied by a photographer. In addition to the two interns I've added to the roster at Off Wing, my friend Ellen Blanchard will be at the game to take pictures.

If we run things the right way, I may even be able to share some of those photos with you in between periods. So be sute to stop by.

More later.

FROM THE PRESS BOX: Greetings form high above Verizon Center as the Caps get ready to take on the Thrashers. Pre-game previews:

Mike Vogel
Southeast Shootout
Japers' Rink
Caps Nut
OFB
View From The Cheap Seats
The Peerless Prognosticator

As Puckhead mentioned, the Barenaked Ladies are in town this weekend, and will be singing the National Anthem before tonight's game. What am I expecting tonight? The Thrashers are coming of a thrashing of their own against Carolina, so they're sure to be fired up. What I'd like to see is a strong effort at home against a team they'll need to pile up some points against this season in order to slip into the 7th or 8th spot.

Starting goalies announced: Olie Kolzig and Johan Hedberg. Looks like Karoi Lehtonen is getting a rest tonight. Rest of starting lineups momentarily.

STARTING LINEUP: Atlanta: D Exelby, Sutton; W Rucchin, Kovalchuk; C Metropolit. Washington: D Muir, Green; W Ovechkin, Clark; C Zubrus. Scratches: Atlanta: Havelid, Boulton; Washington: Klepis, Eminger.

That's two healthy scratches in a row for Eminger -- not a good sign. As Dave Fay mentioned today, Hanlon doesn't hesitate to sit players who aren't measuring up. You have to wonder whether or not that extends to sending somebody to Hershey. Certainly Rico Fata found that out the hard way.

A nice surprise: Ellen got a photo hole, at least for the first period.

BONUS PIC: Zubrus and Exelby.

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Be sure to stop by EB Imagery, the official photography studio of Off Wing Opinion.

Here's Johan Hedberg:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Ben Clymer on the dump-in:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Even more, later.

PICS FROM SECOND PERIOD: Olie Kolzig can't hide what he's thinking:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Steve Rucchin celebrates. It was that kind of period.

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More pictures and a recap of the action, after the jump.

END FIRST PERIOD: CAPS 1 ATLANTA 0: If I had to pick a MVP for the Caps so far this season, it would be Center Dainius Zubrus. There was no better example of how well he's played this season than the sequence that led to the Caps' first goal on the power play.

After holding the puck in at the blue line, Zubrus found Ovechkin with a backhand pass just above the left wing faceoff circle. Ovechkin hit Richard Zednik with a pass as he drove to the net. Zednik had some trouble handling the pass, but he righted himself in time to find Zubrus streaking toward the net for the goal, his eighth of the season.

I don't doubt that playing alongside Ovechkin would improve the stats of most players, but what we're seeing with Zubrus is an entirely different thing. He's raised the level of play in all zones, and the Caps are the better team for it.

Shots for the period were tied at 11. Caps went 1-1 on the power play, while Atlanta was 0-1.

END SECOND PERIOD: CAPS 3 ATLANTA 3: One of the problems we've identified so far this season in Washington is this team's inability to close teams down when they have a lead, and tonight is another example of that, albeit rather extreme. After Chris Clark got his 4th goal of the season shorthanded, the Caps seemed to have everything well in hand with a 2-0 lead. But then, in less than a minute in the middle of the period, the Thrashers scored three goals. First there was a goal at 4-on-4 from John Sim, the Greg DeVries tied the game with his first goal since last March on a nice pass from Rucchin, and it all ended with a Slava Kozlov goal just 35 seconds later.

But just when everything looked lost, who bailed the team out in a scramble in front of Hedburg but Dainius Zubrus who banged home a loose puck for his ninth goal of the season after a lengthy review.

Shots after two periods: Atlanta 29 Washington 19. That means the Caps are well on their way to getting to their average of yielding 36.8 shots a game. Not a good thing.

Take a deep breath. Whew. Third period coming up.

FINAL: ATLANTA 4 CAPS 3: The period couldn't have started worse, with Steve Rucchin scoring just 27 second in on a backhander that beat Kolzig to the near post. Stuff like this is just maddening.

Ugly moment at 15:44 as Jon Sim tripped Ovechkin as he was heading off for a line change. Sim got the gate for tripping, but the Caps didn't get the power play as the refs called a bench minor for too many men on the ice -- caused, ironically, because Ovechkin had been tripped.

More photos. The ref gives Bobby Holik an earful after putting Zubrus on the ice:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

The ref checks out JP Vigier as everyone looks on:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Just another candid shot of Alex:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

More in just a few minutes.

Alex has a laugh inside the faceoff circle:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Hedberg snatches the puck:

Photo by Ellen Blanchard

Kolzig back on his heels:

See you right back here on Monday night.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 12:06 pm by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.